Monday, October 17, 2016

A conundrum of the relationship kind

I thought I'd drop by here as I haven't done it for a while. And look! It tells me a friend has updated her blog 5 months ago. Wow. She hasn't written for ages. And so many entries. But when I look Blogger is playing tricks on me and she's not updated since 2013. How so very odd.

Things are still ongoing here. Niece is still choosing inappropriate relationships. Lately though she has begun to flatly deny there is anything wrong with her choice and any remonstrance to the contrary brings on tantrums. The other problem associated with this is the effect it is having on everything else she does. She is just not functioning normally any more.

Not only is she becoming quite rude if you take her to task, she can no longer do her chores properly. I am now having to check her constantly. She drops cutlery on the floor and once she would have taken it straight to the sink and washed it. Now she picks it up and puts it with the clean stuff. The other day she picked a dirty fork from the sink and took it straight to table. Someone noticed and made her wash it. So she puts it in her hand with the clean ones and rinses it under cold water. No soap.

Twice now, I've caught her wearing her underwear inside out.

Just stupid small things like that which she wouldn't have done before.

The man in question goes to the same program she attends on Monday and Friday. He is 55 years old. Niece is 19. She simply cannot understand why EVERYONE thinks this is not a good idea. The only person who thinks this is a good relationship is another girl who goes to the same program who is also being monitored closely for forming an inappropriate relationship with another older married client.

And yet, I don't want to drop her completely out of this group considering all the trouble we went to to get her placements when she didn't receive any post school funding for proper lifestyle programs. She has gone too far for me to throw up my hands and say whatever. This, I feel, would be rewarding bad behaviour. Even threats of possible suspension haven't deterred the two of them. Yes, he reciprocates.

She constantly tells me that she knows she needs to break up with him but the actions never follow the words. I won't talk to her about it anymore for this exact reason.

I have heard of girls on the spectrum inappropriately obsessing with boys, using stalking behaviours etc, but I've not heard of one who constantly must choose older males she cannot have. I admit I haven't really researched deeply. The general consensus seems to be that one needs to teach the boundaries of appropriate behaviour regarding social and relationship interactions. How do you do this when the person concerned does not want to know? I am certainly not the only one who is trying to provide guidelines. The only time I have taken her to a psychologist I was told they couldn't help because she didn't recognise that she had a problem. I'm somewhat at a loss...

2 comments:

Colleen Barnett said...

Sorry just noticed this update. Wish I had some answers for you. Can only offer a shoulder to punch your frustrations out on. Hopefully things will not take a turn for the worse and this infatuation will run its course.

Hugs xxx

Chris H said...

I hope the man in question is not taking advantage of your niece!!! IN any way.